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It’s like cowtown down south
Fat flatty caught aboard the Dolphin
Nice lineup of cow yellowfin tuna caught aboard the Intrepid during a 15-day trip to the southern end of the Baja Peninsula.
Dock Totals 2/2 – 2/8: 426 anglers aboard 22 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 3 calico bass, 6 halibut (to 34 pounds), 12 rock crab, 390 rockfish, 73 sand bass, 55 sanddab, 281 sculpin, 21 spiny lobster (36 released), and 370 whitefish.
Saltwater: Local half-day boats are having success picking away at whitefish, sculpin, sand bass, and a few halibut in US waters while three-quarter to full-day trips into northern Baja waters have been mostly producing rockfish. Spotted bay bass and halibut have been biting well in San Diego Bay, with the bass mostly coming from the eelgrass edges on the deep side of cuts in 8 to 15 feet of water, while the better halibut have been coming from the channel edges in 25-35 feet of water.
Happy angler with his 34.6-pound halibut caught while fishing aboard the Dolphin during their Wednesday Halibut Derby outing.
Jason Coz, owner/operator of the Dolphin, reported 5 legal halibut caught and another 18 shorts released on Wednesday during their weekly Halibut Derby outing, with one whopper and current leader weighing in at 34.6-pounds. To top it off, the slab of a halibut was caught on a light spinning outfit with a dropper-looped live sardine for bait. Now that’s a nice ‘but from the bay! This is the Dolphin’s eighth year of holding the four-month derby, which provides a nice distraction while rockfish is closed in US waters. It is also a good opportunity to fish the bay on a comfy 85-foot by 24-foot sportboat that has a full-service galley, cold beer and soft drinks, and the bomb ‘Dolphinburgers’ served fresh off the grill.
Fishing in the bay on a sportboat is rare other than the occasional fish caught while loading up bait at the receivers before heading outside to fish. There is also a lot less time spent traveling and more time at the rail, though they will often go outside to the Imperial Beach flats on the Halibut Derby trips, which is a fairly short run from their berth at Fisherman’s Landing. The Dolphin Halibut Derby trips run from 7 am to 3 pm every Wednesday and cost $95, with $10 from each ticket going into the jackpot. The anglers who catch the top three halibut caught between January 1st and April 30th on the Wednesday trips will take the cash.
The yellowtail and bluefin bite that has been hit or miss from off Ensenada to San Quintin died down, but maybe more so due to wind keeping the local boats off the water a good part of the week as the conditions have been a bit chewed up along that stretch. I have a feeling the fish are still around, given a report of fish lost by a friend who was targeting whitefish commercially in rough whitecap conditions off the 240 Bank ten miles west of San Quintin. He said a big fish grabbed a bait as it was descending and pulled line until it broke off. Had it been a bite while reeling up a whitefish, I would guess a black seabass, as they love to eat whitefish.
I’ve seen black seabass follow a whitefish all the way to near the surface before committing, but this bite was on the drop halfway down in 200-feet of water, so more than likely either a large yellowtail or tuna, and given the straight run spooling his reel full of 40-pound line, I would guess bluefin. But, really, it’s all just a guess until it lays down enough for more recreational boats to get out there and put some time in. The commercial guys here, if not working lobster through one of the co-ops, are focused on whitefish and vermilion rockfish and won’t be looking for the pelagic species most recreational anglers prefer to target.
There have been a few yellowfin and bluefin caught further south off the Vizcaino Peninsula halfway down Baja’s Pacific side, but the real story is further south from the Ridge off Bahia Magdalena to the Jaime Bank off Cabo San Lucas. Puerto Vallarta, in the fishing world, has been known as ‘Cowtown’ for the plethora of large 200-pound plus tuna that are caught there from near the Tres Marias Islands south to La Corbetena. But this past couple weeks, that southern stretch of high spots near the south end of the Baja Peninsula that San Diego’s long range fleet likes to target has been producing quite a few cow tuna and even a few supercows. What is a cow tuna, you ask? That title has been applied to any yellowfin tuna that weighs 200-pounds or larger. A supercow is any yellowfin 300-pounds or larger.
The Intrepid reported 13 of the fish caught on their Electric Tuna 15-day trip were over 200-pounds, with the top three weighing in at 325, 292, and 260-pounds. Most of the fish caught on the trip ran from 60 to 150 pounds, which in itself is a nice size slot to be catching. That said, trips resulting in double-digits of cow yellowfin are not that common, but the past couple weeks the big fish showed up in good numbers. The Independence, fishing in the same zone during their Roger Eckhardt 16-Day trip, wrapped up their fishing and headed back up the line with 9 cows and a supercow among the hold full of tuna and wahoo, with their three largest yellowfin weighing in at 305, 285, and 273-pounds. This may not be Cowtown, but San Diego’s sportfishing fleet offers trips to some of the best fishing grounds for cow yellowfin tuna found in the world. Whether the beach, bay, lake, or offshore, they’re out there so go out and get ‘em!
Here's something you might be interested in.
It’s like cowtown down south
Fat flatty caught aboard the Dolphin
It’s like cowtown down south
Fat flatty caught aboard the Dolphin
Nice lineup of cow yellowfin tuna caught aboard the Intrepid during a 15-day trip to the southern end of the Baja Peninsula.
Dock Totals 2/2 – 2/8: 426 anglers aboard 22 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 3 calico bass, 6 halibut (to 34 pounds), 12 rock crab, 390 rockfish, 73 sand bass, 55 sanddab, 281 sculpin, 21 spiny lobster (36 released), and 370 whitefish.
Saltwater: Local half-day boats are having success picking away at whitefish, sculpin, sand bass, and a few halibut in US waters while three-quarter to full-day trips into northern Baja waters have been mostly producing rockfish. Spotted bay bass and halibut have been biting well in San Diego Bay, with the bass mostly coming from the eelgrass edges on the deep side of cuts in 8 to 15 feet of water, while the better halibut have been coming from the channel edges in 25-35 feet of water.
Happy angler with his 34.6-pound halibut caught while fishing aboard the Dolphin during their Wednesday Halibut Derby outing.
Jason Coz, owner/operator of the Dolphin, reported 5 legal halibut caught and another 18 shorts released on Wednesday during their weekly Halibut Derby outing, with one whopper and current leader weighing in at 34.6-pounds. To top it off, the slab of a halibut was caught on a light spinning outfit with a dropper-looped live sardine for bait. Now that’s a nice ‘but from the bay! This is the Dolphin’s eighth year of holding the four-month derby, which provides a nice distraction while rockfish is closed in US waters. It is also a good opportunity to fish the bay on a comfy 85-foot by 24-foot sportboat that has a full-service galley, cold beer and soft drinks, and the bomb ‘Dolphinburgers’ served fresh off the grill.
Fishing in the bay on a sportboat is rare other than the occasional fish caught while loading up bait at the receivers before heading outside to fish. There is also a lot less time spent traveling and more time at the rail, though they will often go outside to the Imperial Beach flats on the Halibut Derby trips, which is a fairly short run from their berth at Fisherman’s Landing. The Dolphin Halibut Derby trips run from 7 am to 3 pm every Wednesday and cost $95, with $10 from each ticket going into the jackpot. The anglers who catch the top three halibut caught between January 1st and April 30th on the Wednesday trips will take the cash.
The yellowtail and bluefin bite that has been hit or miss from off Ensenada to San Quintin died down, but maybe more so due to wind keeping the local boats off the water a good part of the week as the conditions have been a bit chewed up along that stretch. I have a feeling the fish are still around, given a report of fish lost by a friend who was targeting whitefish commercially in rough whitecap conditions off the 240 Bank ten miles west of San Quintin. He said a big fish grabbed a bait as it was descending and pulled line until it broke off. Had it been a bite while reeling up a whitefish, I would guess a black seabass, as they love to eat whitefish.
I’ve seen black seabass follow a whitefish all the way to near the surface before committing, but this bite was on the drop halfway down in 200-feet of water, so more than likely either a large yellowtail or tuna, and given the straight run spooling his reel full of 40-pound line, I would guess bluefin. But, really, it’s all just a guess until it lays down enough for more recreational boats to get out there and put some time in. The commercial guys here, if not working lobster through one of the co-ops, are focused on whitefish and vermilion rockfish and won’t be looking for the pelagic species most recreational anglers prefer to target.
There have been a few yellowfin and bluefin caught further south off the Vizcaino Peninsula halfway down Baja’s Pacific side, but the real story is further south from the Ridge off Bahia Magdalena to the Jaime Bank off Cabo San Lucas. Puerto Vallarta, in the fishing world, has been known as ‘Cowtown’ for the plethora of large 200-pound plus tuna that are caught there from near the Tres Marias Islands south to La Corbetena. But this past couple weeks, that southern stretch of high spots near the south end of the Baja Peninsula that San Diego’s long range fleet likes to target has been producing quite a few cow tuna and even a few supercows. What is a cow tuna, you ask? That title has been applied to any yellowfin tuna that weighs 200-pounds or larger. A supercow is any yellowfin 300-pounds or larger.
The Intrepid reported 13 of the fish caught on their Electric Tuna 15-day trip were over 200-pounds, with the top three weighing in at 325, 292, and 260-pounds. Most of the fish caught on the trip ran from 60 to 150 pounds, which in itself is a nice size slot to be catching. That said, trips resulting in double-digits of cow yellowfin are not that common, but the past couple weeks the big fish showed up in good numbers. The Independence, fishing in the same zone during their Roger Eckhardt 16-Day trip, wrapped up their fishing and headed back up the line with 9 cows and a supercow among the hold full of tuna and wahoo, with their three largest yellowfin weighing in at 305, 285, and 273-pounds. This may not be Cowtown, but San Diego’s sportfishing fleet offers trips to some of the best fishing grounds for cow yellowfin tuna found in the world. Whether the beach, bay, lake, or offshore, they’re out there so go out and get ‘em!
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